Treatment of Australians in Syria Condemned
Citizenship is not a license that expires upon misbehaviour. Could a citizen be deprived of her nationality for evading tax or murder? And one of the basic rights of a citizen is to return home,” says QCCL President Michael Cope
The fate of the women and children in Syria raises both the issues of principle just stated and issues of fact.
The issue of fact is: how dangerous are these people?
According to ASIO head Mike Burgess his organisation has no concerns about some of the women[1]
Mat Tinkler of Save the Children has said that the women have said they will submit voluntarily to control orders[2]
Whether the constitution or the common law gives Australian citizens a right of return is, it must be said, hotly debated amongst lawyers and legal scholars. There is one old High Court case http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCA/1908/63.html which contains some support for such a right.
A 1988 case http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCA/1988/61.html in which the High Court unanimously struck down a tax on people arriving in the country is seen by many scholars as supporting such a right, but others disagree[3].
But there is no doubt about it from the point of view of international human rights law -article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says:
“Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.”
“The reason why this is so ought to be obvious to all- if the concept of citizenship is to mean anything it must mean the right to return to and live in your place of citizenship” says Mr Cope
Mr. Cope says, “In fact, from the security point of view and of our obligation to deal with our own problems it would be better to have these people in the country either in jail or under surveillance.”
Mr Cope said, “We should not be foisting our problems onto other people. The government has more than ample power to deal with these people in the country by charging them or putting them under surveillance after appropriate procedures have been followed”
For further information contact Michael Cope President QCCL on 07 3223 5939 during office hours and at all times on 0432 847 154
27 February 2028
[1] From Late Night Live — Full program podcast: Anna Henderson's Canberra, and Helen Clark on the UN's missing senior women, 23 Feb 2026 https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/late-night-live-full-program-podcast/id73330961?i=1000751017399
[2] https://youtu.be/pW7AejKkGrI?si=ckxEAwpvvU1Zx9mi
[3] The point was argued during COVID but not decided - Newman v Minister for Health and Aged Care [2021] FCA 517